SDSU Needs All It Can Marshall to Win

On this Sunday morning, the first Nov. 10 since 1986 on which the San Diego State football season has been worth more than a discarded ticket stub, a moment for three little letters:

BYU.

It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t convincing, but the Aztecs--buoyed by the return of Marshall Faulk, who picked up where he left off four games ago with 174 yards and a touchdown--picked apart Colorado State, 42-32, in front of 30,163 Saturday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The victory set up what Coach Al Luginbill and his Aztecs have dreamed about since their first practice in mid-August:

SDSU (8-2, 6-1) vs. Brigham Young (7-3, 6-0), this Saturday in San Diego, for the Western Athletic Conference title and the right to represent the WAC in the Holiday Bowl.

Whew.

It was another wipe-your-forehead kind of game for the Aztecs. In the second half, the Rams twice pulled to within four points--14-10 and 28-24--and once to within three, 35-32.

But with Faulk and Patrick Rowe, whose 113 yards receiving moved him into first place in that category on the all-time SDSU list with 2,540 yards, the Aztecs play football like the Roadrunner stays ahead of Wile E. Coyote. They just outrace their opponents.

“Why we go into slumbers . . .” Coach Al Luginbill said. “It’s not because they want to, and it’s not because we coach it. It’s just part of this team’s personality right now.”

Quite a personality. The Aztecs yielded 430 yards of total offense to a team that was eighth in the WAC in that category when the night began. But they gobbled up 468 total yards themselves and ended the night with a satisfied burp.

“We get to play for it next week,” Luginbill said. “That was our original goal. The pressure is off of us now.”

This one wasn’t over until the Aztecs, going for it with the 35-32 lead on fourth and inches with three minutes remaining, drew the Rams offside.

“We were going to run the quarterback sneak there, and they helped us,” Luginbill said.

But nobody helped more than Faulk, who had been sidelined since sustaining two fractured ribs and a punctured lung Oct. 12. Later in that drive, he scored on a 12-yard run to make it 42-32. And a few minutes earlier, with Colorado State breathing fire down SDSU’s neck, Faulk broke off a 36-yard run to help set up the touchdown that put SDSU ahead, 35-24.

“I was trying my best out there,” Faulk said. “(A lot of times) I’d be one tackle away, a shoestring tackle or something like that.”

On the 36-yarder, his longest run of the night, Faulk twisted several Rams defenders like pretzels as he cut left, right, left, and then finally went right.

“Coach was telling me all night to face the free safety up,” Faulk said. “Square him up and then do what I have to do to him.”

Faulk said he took himself out on a few occasions when he felt he was tiring.

“I seemed to have more stamina toward the end of the game,” he said.

On those occasions when Faulk left, Wayne Pittman, who did not run for fewer than 140 yards in any of the three games he played in Faulk’s place, entered. Pittman carried six times for 12 yards.

No, if not for Faulk, Rowe and quarterback David Lowery (24 of 34 passes completed for 279 yards and four touchdowns), SDSU would have been in trouble.

To a man, SDSU denied looking past the Rams to BYU. But now, with eight victories safely tucked away, the Cougars are all SDSU will think about.

“I want them so bad,” Lowery said. “My freshman year was the first time I got to play against them, and they beat us.

“Next week is going to be a game . It’s what we’ve been playing for. We won the CIF when I was in high school, but this will be the biggest game I’ve ever played in.”

Before the game turned into a track meet, a crucial point came early in the second half, when SDSU survived a failed fake punt, and then overcame a clipping penalty that nullified Darnay Scott’s 92-yard kickoff return.

The Aztecs led at the time of the fake punt, 14-3, and it came on their first possession of the second half. On fourth and four from the SDSU 39, snapper Thomas Fletcher hiked the ball to short man Damon Pieri instead of to punter Jason Savorn.

Pieri slipped as he took off and managed only two yards. Colorado State took over and, three plays later, back-up quarterback Anthony Hill, a freshman from University of San Diego High School, went 23 yards through the right side of the SDSU defense for a touchdown.

That made it 14-10 and, when Scott’s 92-yard return was called back on the ensuing kickoff, it suddenly looked as if the BYU game wouldn’t mean a thing.

But SDSU embarked on a 70-yard drive with 6:49 left in the third quarter and, after a 21-yard pass to Will Tate on third and four from the Ram 23, Lowery dove over from the one to give the Aztecs a 21-10 lead.

And one minute later, Lowery connected with Scott on a 47-yard touchdown pass for a 28-10 lead.

It was one of the few times SDSU could breathe easy on this night.

The Aztecs spotted Colorado State a three-point lead when Mike Brown capped the Rams’ first drive of the game, an 80-yard effort, with a 21-yard field goal.

SDSU didn’t score until Lowery connected with Rowe, who was on a post pattern, for a 34-yard touchdown pass with 7:34 remaining in the first half.

After Terrill Steen recovered a CSU fumble, Lowery passed two yards to tight end Marc Ziegler for a touchdown, making it 14-3.

It was Ziegler’s first career reception. A freshman from Mira Mesa High, he redshirted last season after breaking a collarbone and missed the first half of this season after suffering a knee injury.